Q. Kumber wrote:I'm not exactly sure when all the interest developed in the Berglas Effect and the popularity of what is now known as ACAAN, new versions going out weekly. I'd say it is within the last twenty years that it has become mainstream.

The recent developments leave me somewhat cold because of something I experienced in 1978.

I knew the name David Berglas aged 8 or 9 because my grandmother gave me a David Berglas magic set for Christmas. The first time I saw him was at the Brighton British Ring convention in 1976. Again at the Hastings 1978 convention. Not sure at which I saw him perform his ESPocology routine which fooled me to the core. It caused me many sleepless nights thinking about the impossibility of what I'd experienced. Years later, when he revealed the method, I realised I'd been fooled by something very simple, and had my mind warped by his ability to get multiple climaxes with no extra work. (The ability to get multiple climaxes from little or no extra work appears in a number of David's routines, and in my opinion is the real Berglas Effect).

Back to the card at any number.

It's about 2.30am in the HQ hotel and David is performing around the billiard's table. He's borrowing decks from the magicians and doing various think of a card routines and other miracles. It was all amazing.

So David is performing away, and then asks someone to call out a card and someone else a number. He got all the magicians who had a deck of cards on the table's edge to pick up their deck and count down. The card was at that number in each deck.

It didn't impress me any more than any of the other things I'd seen him do, because they had fried my mind, and this was - to me- just another egg on the pan.

I didn't think much more about it until years later when it started being discussed online and at conventions. I just recalled my experience at Hastings and wondered why magicians were so impressed with one deck when I'd seen it done with fourteen.

A few years ago, I walked up to Paul Wilson sitting at the main bar at the Castle. I told him I heard he had a great version of ACAAN. He immediately asked me to name a card and a number, which I did. Then he picked up a deck from the bar, dealt to that number, and there was my card.

That's the complete description of what I saw. No displacements, no moves, no discussion, no limiting the choice of number, nothing. Deck in his hands until I named both, picked up and directly dealt to the bar.

Pete: The Wilson method is as follows. There are 52 one-way decks, each with a different card. These are loaded into a carousel which is built into and under the bar with a trap door. As soon as you name the card Wilson pushes a secret Bluetooth button which positions the correct deck on top of the bar. This is covered as his hand moves over the deck. As he picks the deck up, the trap door closes to show a solid bar top.

Not exactly what you guys are talking about, BUT.I walked into a salon in a mall to get a haircut.Two ladies were playing cards by the front counter.I walked up and said, "I'll cut an ace."I cut the packet on the table and showed the card I cut to.It was an ace.I am a psychic and a Jedi.

I watched Jason's clip several times.I would like to watch B's trick done in real life.Sounds intriguing but I don't think I would want to do all the work.For me it will always be a secret.

Q. Kumber wrote:I'm not exactly sure when all the interest developed in the Berglas Effect and the popularity of what is now known as ACAAN, new versions going out weekly. I'd say it is within the last twenty years that it has become mainstream..."

I thought the 15-year ACAAN craze was sparked by Richard Kaufman describing Berglas doing it to him in a car, probably in a Genii Speaks column. The search function for the digital issues isn't very user-friendly though, so I'm having trouble tracking it down...

Bob: In John Gaughan's workshop he has a beautiful table that was an "any named card rise" from a deck in a houlette on the table. Built into the table is a carousel, like a slide projector, with 52 cards in it. An assistant offstage pulls a thread to rotate the carousel, while watching through a telescope to see through a hole in the leg that the correct card is in position, then pulls another thread to make the card rise.

You think Paul Wilson had something like that? I wouldn't put it past him.

Thanks Philippe. I do remember this account of the deck being chosen from an assortment in a china cabinet drawer, but I thought there was another one of Berglas performing it for Richard in a car. I'm also surprised it's so late as 2007. I'd thought it appeared several years earlier.

Maybe I'm confusing it with this excerpt from an ACAAN ad by Bill Nagler on p. 24 in the August 2006 issue, but this is only marginally earlier. Ah, memory is a funny thing.

"David Berglas is driving in downtown London. My friend Marcello Truzzi is in the passenger seat. Berglas hands Marcello a deck. Marcello is vehement, vehement that the deck is out at the top. Marcello names a card. Pat, Marcello's wife, names a number. Marcello hands the deck to Pat in the back seat. Pat counts to the number. The card is there. This really, really bugs me."